By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
The sports world in Las Vegas hit the entertainment trifecta this past weekend when the local market was treated to (1) former UFC bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey’s “contract signing” ceremony in the scripted world of professional wrestling; (2) the continuation of the “Renegades” show at Caesars Palace that features former troublemakers Jose Canseco, Terrell Owens and Jim McMahon; and (3) Las Vegas Lights FC soccer coach El Chelis saying or doing just about anything.
Jose Luis Sanchez Sola — or Chelis — sat in the Cashman Field stands with fans and smoked a cigarette after he got booted from a Las Vegas Lights-Vancouver Whitecaps preseason game Feb. 17.
And after the Lights lost, 4-2, to Major League Soccer’s D.C. United Saturday night, Chelis looked quite glum. He was not very pleased with the score and the loss. (Even fans weren’t as dejected as El Chelis because they knew the United Soccer League Lights lost three preseason games to superior MLS clubs.)
But Chelis is a colorful character, as they say, and he also connects with the Mexican and Latino soccer fans in Las Vegas. It’s clear the majority of the fans who attend Lights games at downtown Cashman Field are Latino.
That’s why Chelis needs to be deployed for another job with the Lights.
It seems that owner Brett Lashbrook’s strategy to drown out the “puto” chant at Lights games did not work Saturday. Some fans have taken to chanting, “puto,” which can be interpreted as an anti-gay slur, when the visiting team’s goaltender boots the ball.
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Two weeks ago, LVSportsBiz.com wrote about this issue when “puto” was first heard at the Feb. 10 inaugural preseason game.
Lashbrook is very much against the puto chant and tried to use music and a Viva Lights chant to drown out the puto chant Saturday when the Lights last played.
It didn’t work.
The word is an ugly term and it has a horrible meaning no matter what you think it means. And it has no place at a public venue, one run by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).
People who believe puto has anti-homosexual connotations say it means, “faggot.”
Others believe it means, “bitch,” when chanted in a soccer game context.
And many Mexican soccer fans say there’s no anti-gay meaning to the word and argue it’s like calling the goaltender an “asshole” when he boots the ball and they believe there’s no maliciousness behind the word. (FIFA disagrees and has fined Mexico for past chants.)
After Saturday’s game, a Lights player said the team is “concerned” about the puto chance, though he personally didn’t believe it was an anti-homosexual chant.
LVSportsBiz.com offers this idea for Lashbrook and the Lights.
Lashbrook said Chelis is also opposed to the use of the puto chant. So, I recommend Chelis talk directly to the Lights fans over the PA system before the next home game March 24 (the regular season opener) and advise everyone in the Cashman Field crowd to stop using the puto word and start a new tradition whether it’s “Viva Lights” or anything else.
Chelis is a well-known Mexican soccer leader and has the respect and following of most of the Mexican and Latino soccer fans at Cashman.
JC Martin of the Las Vegas Locally twitter handle has discussed the puto chant on social media and didn’t think Chelis could stop the chant: “Fans will think that Chelis only made the announcement because ownership asked him to. Most Mexicans don’t consider the chant to be anti-gay, or even really ‘bad,’ so it’s unlikely that Chelis cares about it much. The Lights will have to take much stronger action if they want the chant to stop.”
But let’s see if Chelis can help. Maybe he can be the voice of change and start a new chant tradition in the soccer world.
It could be another reason to attend Lights games besides petting the Zappos llamas.
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